Tobacco-stemming rolls.



140; 694.962. Patented mar. ,1902.

.Ls. HAVENS. '7 TOBACCO S'TEHHING'ROLLSL (Application filed Dec. 9 1901.)

(N0 Model.) Sheets-$heai I.

' 1NVENTOR "0.694362. Patented Mar. n, {1902.

.1. aumeus. I

I TOBACCO STEIIIING BULLS.

(Apphmbzonfiled nma x'oon 2 Shea ts-Shaet 2.

(No Model.)

INVENTOB UNTTED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOSEPH GOODENOUGH HAVENS, OF TRENTON, NElV JERSEY.

TOBACCO-STEMMING ROLLS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 694,962, dated March 11, 1902.

Application filed December 9,1901. Serial No. 85,178. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, JosEPH GOODENOUGH HAVENS, of Trenton, Mercer county, New Jersey, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Tobacco-Stemming Rolls, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to the removal of the leaf portion of tobacco from the stem. It involves the discovery of a new principle namely, the cutting of the leaf away from the stem progressively by the action of cutting-surfaces analogous in type and operation to those of a milling-cutter, which surfaces surround the stem, the leaf being fed to said cutters at such a rate of speed as will enable them most effectively to perform their work. This principle I may carry into effect in many modes and by many forms of apparatus. In my present application Iset forth one useful and practical embodiment of it.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 shows a portion of a stripping-roll, partlyin section, on the line :0 :0, Fig. 2, which roll is provided with cutting edges in accordance with my invention. Fig. 2 is a section of said roll on the line y y of Fig. 1. Figs. 3, a, and 5 are sectional views of two such rolls associated with drawing-in devices.

Similar numbers of reference indicate like parts.

For purposes of convenient explanation I will first describe my roll individually as a separate article of manufacture and then in association with a second and similar roll in a tobacco-stemming machine.

The machine selected is that set forth and fully described in United States Letters Patent No. 678,485, granted to Joseph G. Havens, July 16, 1901.

My roll consists of asteel cylinder 1, integral with or fast upon the supporting-shaft 2. Around the periphery are grooves 3 of substantiallysemicircularcross-section. The flanges l between said grooves have their peripheral edges preferably rounded. Within the grooves 3, extending transversely the same and following their contour, are to be cutting edges. These may be teeth, as shown at 5; but it is to be understood that any cutting means capable of operating in accordance with my said principle are within the scope of my invention and of the claims hereinafter presented.

In order that the operation of my roll in accordance with the before-stated principle may be fully understood, I now refer to Figs.

,3, 1, and 5, which show in section two contacting rolls 1 and 1*, combined, as set forth in said Havens patent, with the drawing-in bars 62 and 63 and a pair of traction-rolls 72 73. The said drawing-in bars and tractionrolls are designated by similar numbers in said Havens patent. By reason of the actuating-gearing (not here shown, but fullydescribed in said Havens patent) the strippingrolls 1 and 1* are caused to rotate in the direction of the arrows a, and the bars 62 and 63 and rolls 72 73 in the opposite direction, as indicated by the arrows c and Z). The bars 62 and 63, also as set forth in said Havens patent, revolve around the rolls 1 and 1*, means being provided for separating said rolls to permit the said bars to pass between them. The initial position of the parts and leaf is as shown in Fig. 8-that is to say, the butt-end of the stem is presented between the convex surfaces of the bars 62 and 63. As these bars continue their revolution the stem is grasped between them, the rolls 1 and 1* meanwhile separating, as shown in Fig. 4. The stem is thus carried onward until it meets and is engaged by the traction-rolls 72 and 73, as shown in Fig. 5, by which time the bars 62 63 have moved from between rolls 1 and 1*, which have again come together, and begin to strip the stem.

There are certain facts which it is of importance should now be clearly apprehendednamely, the tobacco-leaf has not been fiattened or otherwise prepared for introduction between the stripping-rolls. It is presented just as it comes from the bale or packagethat is, no matter how compressed or crumpled, and not point first, but butt-end first. The circular spaces formed between opposite grooves in the rolls have each an area approximating that of the cross-section of the stem near its butt-end. The cutting edges in the grooves, as I have said, surround the stem and act like the teeth of milling-cutters. The instant the leaf moving in one direction meets them rotating in the other they cut it away from the stem, and because they surround the stem it is immaterial where the lines of junction of leaf and stem may lie. Therefore it is not necessary to flatten the leaf. The leaf simply meets them and then they begin to cut, as indicated in Fig. 3, the cutoff portions being thrown backward from the stem by the rolls, as indicated by their added outlines at d in Fig. 5. Now in order to accomplish this it is necessary that the rolls 1 and 1* should run at high speed, while the v traction-rolls 72 73 should rotate at a very much lower speed. By reason of their high speed the teeth of rolls 1 and 1 will act on the leaf even when it offers comparatively little resistance. The speed of the tractionrolls '72 and 73 is to be so regulated that the stem shall be drawn ahead no faster than is necessary to feed the work to the cutters. The test of proper speed is the efficient removal of leaf from stem. If the speed is too great, two results will be apparent-portions of leaf will remain uncut from the stem and the stem will almost certainly be broken, this because of the wedging of the leaf dragged into the groove between the rolls. If the speed is too low, the operation will be slow and the cutters will not act up to their proper capacity.

I desire to direct especial attention to the fact that there is no tearing of the leaf from the stem. The stem is not dragged through a hole by the rolls 72 and 73 and the leaf portion torn from it, because the latter is too bulky to get through the hole. Such a proceeding, especiallyin a machinehavingdrawing-rolls maintaining an unyielding pull, can only result in breakage of the stem, because the leaf quickly wedges in the passage, and the instant it offers more resistance to the pull than the stem does the latter parts. If the aperture is formed by grooves in contacting rolls revolving in a direction opposite to that of the traction-rolls, the same result is only precipitated, because the more the leaf tends to wedge the greater the friction between roll-surface and leaf and the quicker the limit of resistance of the stem, now subjected to strain in opposite directions, is reached. The necessity for actual cuttingsurfaces in those grooves will thus become apparent, for the leaf cannot wedge if it is removed from the stem as fast as it is presented to the cutting edges and then immediately thrown backward by the action of the rolls themselves.

The term cuttingsurface used in the claims means a surface provided with a multiplicity of small projectionssuch as teeth, asperities, or edgesformed so as to cut or abrade by cutting the material brought into contact with said surface. I have successfully used rolls in which the cutting-surfaces were similar to those of files.

I claim- 1. A roll adapted to remove the leaf portion of a tobacco-leaf from the stem, having on its periphery a plurality of circumferential grooves, and within said grooves a multiplicity of small cutting projections, substantially as described.

2. A roll adapted to remove the leaf portion of a tobacco-leaf from the stem, having on its periphery a plurality of circumferential grooves, and within said groovesa multiplicity of small cutting projections formed on said roll-surface and covering the same, substantially as described.

3. A roll adapted to remove the leaf portion of a tobacco-leaf from the stem, having on its periphery aplurality of substantially semicircular grooves and within said grooves a multiplicity of small cutting edges extending transversely said grooves and conforming to the shape thereof, substantially as described.

4-. A roll adapted to remove the leaf portion of a tobacco-leaf from the stem, having on its periphery a plurality of circumferential flanges having edges adapted to cut the leaf between them, and between said flanges a multiplicity of small cutting projections, substantially as described.

5. The combination in an apparatus for stemming leaf-tobacco of two revolving rolls, each having a plurality of circumferential grooves and within said grooves a multiplicity of small cutting projections on said roll-surface, the said rolls being parallel with the groove of one opposite the groove of the other, to form a plurality of openings for the introduction of the leaf-stem; whereby the leaf is removed from said stems by said cutting projections entirely surrounding said stems, substantially as described.

6. The combination in an apparatus for stemmingleaf-tobacco, of two parallel revolving rolls, each having a plurality of circumferential grooves and within said grooves a multiplicity of small cutting projections on said roll-surfaces, the grooves of one roll being opposite the grooves of the other to form a plurality of openings for the introduction of the leaf-stems, and means for conveying said stems longitudinally into said openings; whereby the leaf is removed from said stems by being caused by said means to meet said rapidly-moving cutting projections surrounding said stems, substantially as described.

'7. The combination in an apparatus for stemming leaf-tobacco of two parallel revolving rolls each having a plurality of circumferential grooves and within said grooves a multiplicity of small cutting projections on said roll-surfaces, the grooves of one roll being opposite the grooves of the other, and means for conveying said stems longitudinally into said openings, the said rolls revolving in a direction opposite to that in which ICC the leaf is conveyed by said means, and at a In testimony whereof- I have signed my speed relativeiy greater than the speed of name to this specification in the presence of conveyance 'of said leaf; whereby the leaf is two subscribing Witnesses.

removed frem said stems by beingcaused by JOSEPH GOODENOUGH HAVENS. 5 said means to meet said rapidly-moving eut- Witnesses: I a

ting projections surrounding said stems, sub- I. A. VAN TART,

stantially as described. l H. B. MOLLER-h 

